Process of desulfurizing ores.



H. F. WIERUIVI.

PROC-ESS 0F DESULFURIZING ORES.

APPLICATloN FILED SEPT. l5, 1913. RENEWED SEPT. 15. 191e.

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SYNDICATE LIMIT-ED,

ASSIGNOB, TO THE SULPHUR F LONDON, ENGLAND, A. CORPORATION OF ENGLAND.

PROCESS 0F DESULFURIZING: GRES.

Application le'd September 15, 1913, Serial No. 789,921.

To all 'wwm t may concern.'

Be it known that I, HOWARDF.

a citizen of the United States, residing at Upper Montclair, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful llmprovements in Processes of Desulfurizing Orcs, of which the following is a specification. c

v A process has been described by William A -Hall in E ngneerz'ng and Mining Jon/inurlY forJuly 5, 1913, page 35, in which sull'id ore, such as copper bearing pyrites or pyrrhotite is heated to a temperature of between 700 and 900 C. by means of a reducing amef and in the presence of a small amount of steam T The present invention is an improvement on said Hall process, and consists essentially in mixing a small amount, say 2 or 3% or even 5% of a carbonaceous fuel, such as coal or coke, or lamp black, (should the same be available) with the fine ore under treatment.

WIRUM,

y When thus using a solid carbonaceous fuel iicult problem of maintaining of combustion, steam and sulfur in admixture with the suld ore, it is notv necessary to maintain a reducingflame, since while the dame may be oxidizing, the presence. of the carbonaceus fuel converts the effective surfaces ofthe dame, into a reducing or non-.oxidizing flame.

Steam is admitted into the furnace, and the ore is continuously rabbled, and the teml peratures are maintained ,between 700 and 900 C., all substantially as in said process of W. A. Hall,

This process overcomes the somewhat dif- I the combustion of a reducing flame, particularly in the upper compartments of the furnace, if a furnace of the Wedge, McDougall or Herresshol type is employed, since it is very much V,easier to maintain regular and even combustion in an oxidizing ame than it is in' a reducing flame in the present process, since the atmosphere present in the working compartment of the furnace' contalns considerable amounts 'of vaporized sulfur, products compounds,

and very little free oxygen.

The presence of the steam aids in'preventing the formation of large amounts of SO2,

and of carbonyl sulfid or carbon oxysuld',

(and decomposes any of the latter that may `be found), also if considerable steam -isemployed, and particularly if the temperature is `rather low, say in the vlcimty of 700 C.,

Specification of Letters Patent.

of the Stipkney patent. I claim anything shown or Patented Apr, 10, 191'?,

considerable ILS may be produced by the ment, or`compartments, since as soon as all has been burned by of the carbonaceous fuel the oxidizing flames, and particularly in the absence of material amounts of steam, the

bulk of the sulfur present in the ores under treatment will be converted into SO2.

Ordinarily in this troduce very little, or no steam, into the furnace, since the main object is to produce SO2 rather than H251, and to bring down the sulfur content of the roasted ore to as sweet a roast as possible. However if steam is also admitted, considerable HZS may be produced in this part of the process, either with a sufcient amount of SO, for producing sulfur therefrom, or with even less SO2. ln this case the gases leaving the furnace will contain an excess of H2S, which may be utilized, or gotten rid of, in any suitable manner.v

In place of using steam in the upper compartments, or in all the compartments, 1 may use a fuel gas containing considerable quantities of hydrogen, such -as Water gas, or more particularly -oil gas, which hydrogen, upon combustion, will produce a sufficient amount of steam for the purpose mentioned. Other hydrogen containing fuel may, of course, also be employed for this purpose.

1 am familiar with the patents to Stickney, 475,825, May 81, 1892,; 493,193, March 7, 1893; 512,285, Jan. 2, 1894, and 587,068 July 27, 1897, in which sulfid ores are roasted, under conditions which are said to produce free sulfur, by first converting sube stantially all of the sulfur existing in the one 100 might also be a certain amount of distillation of the feeble atom of sulfur if pyrites or similar ore wereV employed in the process accordingly dise. described in said call especial attention patents. I desire ,tor

1n my v process most of the to the fact that sulfur of the suld ore never gets into the lll@ Renewed September 15, 1916. Serial No. 120,423. i

part of the process ll ini linteraction of the sullid ore and the steam,

form of either HZS or SO2, but is driven out by direct distillation, as free sulfur, and

is in the gases leaving the furnace v may be suitably converted into 'free sulfur, or otherwise treated.l

While the furnace used in carrying out 'this process may be the/ordinary type of mechanical ore roaster, provided with suitable blast lamps for introducing the iiames,

I `find that in some instances it is much-better to withdraw the gases separately from each compartment,- and lead them to a common flue, through which the gases are conveyedv to any suitabletype of apparatus for removing and for recovering the free sulfur in the gases, in this manner the difficulty likely to be encountered in trying to-produce substantially complete combustion, in the atmosphere in the upper compartments, which atmosphere contains very large amounts of free sulfur, products of combustion,l steam, and sulfur compounds is largely avoided, and also since the vaporized sulfur does not come into contact with the flames to so great an extent there is usually less of the vaporized sulfur converted into SO2, than fand Fig. 2-shows a cross section of such a I also desire to call attention to the fact that this process is not only applicable to ores, suchA as above stated, but also to the treatment (desulfurization) of mattes, or other sulfid'material. The Aterm ores as used in the appended claim-'is accordingly intended to cover the treatment of matte, and other similar material.:

The process forming the subject matter of my invention maybe carried out in the apparatus illustrated in .the accompanyingv drawin ,in which Figure 1 shows a verti-M cal section of the upper part of the furnace,

furnace.

In said drawings the ore is preferably fed in at l, by means of a particular structure of drying top, which has been found to give excellent results in metallurgical furnaces, the ore passes successively over the. hearths 2, 3, 4, etc., by means of openings, 5, 6, 7,

stantially allv been eliminated.

etc., uiitil it reaches the bottom ofthe furnace, where it is' discharged inthe usual manner.

At 8 I have shown Bunsen burners or blast lamps, which are suitably connected Awith a gas supply pipe 9 and an' air supply.

pipe 10, whereby the flames may be projected onto the layer of ore on each. of the hearths of the furnace.

At 11 is shown a tangential steam inlet, for introducing the steam with which the ores are to be treated,

12 illustrates any vsuitable form, of -rabbles,l

a large vertical iiue or dust chamber 16,l

wherein iue dust may settleV out from the gases in the usual manner. 17 represents the pipe leading to the gas Washers, or other (f form of apparatus from the gases.

What I-claim is:- 1. A process of desulfurizingsu-lid ores and mattes, which comprises mixingl the same with a carbonaceous material, and

for separating the sulfur iame, in the presence of steam in amount sufficient to decompose any carbon oxysulfid formed, and while agitating said mixture.l

heating said mixture to a temperature of -700` to 900 C. by the direct action of a 2. In the .process of desulfurizing sulfid ores and mattes, the step of subjecting a mixture of said suld in the form of fines,

and a carbonaceous material, to a temperature of between 7 00 and 900 C. Whilev in the presence of'steam, and -while agitating said mixture.

3. In the process of desulfurizing finely divided suliid ores and mattes,`the step of subjecting a layer of -a mixture of said ma terial Withv a carbonaceous fuel, to the action of a heating ame, at a temperature at which substantially allv the sulfur contentv thereof will distil in elemental form, and

4while agitating said layer.

4. A process of /desulfurizing sulfid. ores andmattes,l which conprises subjecting the ics same at a temperature ofl from 700 to 900 C. to the action of a fiame in the presence ofa carbonaceousfuel, andv in the' presence' of steam, and continuing said flame treatment aftersaid carbonaceous fuel has sub- .5`. A process of desulfurizmg pyrrhotite Ior .other suld ores or lmattes, which com'- kfuel at a `temperature of between 700 and 900 C. while agitating the same in the pres-f ence of steam, and continuing said flame treatment after substantially all said fuel has burned away. j

6. A process of desulfurizing metal sulfids, which comprises producing a mixture of 'said sulds in a finely divided condition and-a carbonaceous fuel, subjecting a layer of said mixture to the action of a reverberatory flame, while maintaining said mixture at a temperature of 70D-900 C. and While periodically agitating -said mixture, and il@ While in the presence of steam.

In'testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

HOWARD 1F. WHRUM.

Witnesses:

C. W. LEININGER, ELIZABETH SGAMMON. 

